Castro and the African revolution

Continued from page 16

Holden Roberto who led FNLA and local rebel Jonas Savimbi of UNITA supporting.

This invasion broke the proverbial camel’s back compelling Castro to decisively intervene following a legitimate invitation by the Angolan government headed by Dr. Neto’s MPLA. Thousands of Cuban troops, medical doctors and engineers were flown in to relieve the beleaguered Angolans and by 1976 Castro had the upper hand having decisively won the contest. But defeat did not deter the US as it continued its covert operations to undermine the popular wish of Angolans. In 1985 President Ronald Reagan pushed through the senate a revocation of the Clark Amendment law that prohibited American financial assistance to Angolan rebels. Following this revocation Reagan invited Savimbi to the White House February 1986 and pledged $15m in addition to weapons, which he faithfully delivered through the Kamina military base in Zaire.

Then in January 1988 a combined force of South Africans, UNITA and FNLA invaded Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola. For this campaign Pretoria threw in 9000 troops armed with longrange artillery, fighter jets, tanks, etc. But Castro’s troops, MPLA and SWAPO armies were on the ground to receive them and the invaders suffered another crushing defeat as in 1976. South African obsolete jets, crippled by UN arms embargo, were no match for Castro’s stateof-the-art Russian built supersonic fighters that dominated the air war; effectively cutting off the enemies from their tactical headquarters. A humiliated Pretoria had to rely on the American negotiator called Dr. Chester Crocker to beg Castro for retreat passage for its surrounded troops. That was how Angolan independence was secured.